Jim Carrey fought back tears during an emotional TV interview on Monday, when he opened up about the trauma of growing up in poverty in Canada. The Liar Liar star appeared on America’s Inside The Actor’s Studio and opened up about growing up in Newmarket, Ontario with his housewife mother Kathleenand musician and accountant father Percy.

But the middle class family faced tough times when his dad lost his job, forcing a then-12-year-old Carrey to take on an after school job, working eight-hour days in a factory, leaving him wanting to “bash somebody’s head in”.

And recalling the trauma of living in poverty was an emotional drain for the actor, now 48.

Carrey remembered: “My father lost his job when he was 51 and that was the real ‘wow’, the kick in the guts.

“We lived in a van for a while, and we worked all together as security guards and janitors.”